All is well in Downey!

Familia!  
I am so excited to email you today. This week was soooooo good!  The week was seriously one of the best weeks on my mission, we saw soooo many miracles. I wish I could tell you all of the miracles but there are seriously too many. There were miracles coming out of the ying yang. I don't have a lot of time at this library and we have a bunch of stuff to do today, so this might be short.  But I just wanted to share some things that happened this week. First of all, I LOVE my companion, she is great!  We are super different but get along great. Her name is Sister Landon and she is from Washington state.  She has been helping me alot to become more familiar with things here.  I love, LOVE this area!  The members are great and they have been super helpful in the time that I have been here.  So all is well here, in Downey. Also, mom, I spoke in church yesterday about following the promptings of the Spirit -- you like to know things like that, so I thought I'd add it.  

What do we do as Sister Training Leaders, you ask? We train the Sisters, like ZL's.  We go on exchanges with them to help them in their areas, with their goals, teaching techniques, etc. We cover our entire zone, plus another set of sisters, so I think six or seven companionships.

Hermana Landon and Hermana Warner at the Los Angeles Visitor Center.  Michelle's new companion.

So a few quick stories.  Last week we were trying to contact a referral. We knocked a few times, but no one was home so we went down the stairs. But then my comp saw a car in the spot that he lived in and so she said that we should go knock again.  So we did and still no one answered. So we walked down the stairs and there was a man outside. We just said 'hi' to him and asked how he was. He looked at us and told us to come in his house. We were both super confused, but we followed him. His wife opened the door and told us to come in. So we sat down and started talking to her.  We asked what her beliefs were and she told us that she believed that right now we are just in an earthly state. We are here just so that we can learn and progress.  But eventually one day our spirits are going to go back with God.  We began talking to her about baptism and she said that she wanted to be baptized, she just felt like she needed to be prepared. At this point our mouths were dropped.  She accepted a baptismal date. It was one of the craziest experiences that I have had on my mission!  It was so cool to have been a part of that.  

Michelle and her old district, with Hermana Wright.

Another one is we were contacting another referral, that wasn't there.  We walked around for a minute. There was a man on his bike and so we stopped him and talked to him. He was quoting the Bible and was talking a lot.  In the end, he wasn't very interested. So we kept walking. There was an 18 year old boy on his scooter, so we stopped and talked to him (yes, it is really awkward stopping people on their bike/skateboard/scooter, but it's worth it). He told us that he had just gotten out of jail the day before. He wanted to change so badly. He wanted to be a better person.  He wanted to stop drinking and smoking. I was able to connect with his situation really well. I was able to tell him that there really was a way for him to get out of that. That Heavenly Father has a specific plan for us. My companion was able to do the same.

We had a lot of experiences like this, this whole week.  I am so grateful for the blessings that Heavenly Father provides us with when we are obedient to His commandments.  I know that he wants us to experience joy like this.  I have honestly never been this happy in my whole life.  I love what I am doing here.  Until next week!
I love you so, so much!   Hermana Michelle

They went on splits together!  Hermana Shepherd and Hermana Warner.  So fun!